Elm Shakespeare Co.’s new Producing Director Rebecca Goodheart deals herself an ace with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” one of Shakespeare’s most popular and accessible comedies. Then she turns over another “bullet” in director Tina Packer, the venerable founder of Shakespeare & Company of Lenox, Massachusetts, who, having staged the show roughly eight times before, knows it better than The Bard himself. Needless to say, everyone watching the game expects Elm Shakes to draw nothing short of a full boat when the deal is done.

What plays out is a high-energy, slapstick production where speed and physicality trump language and subtlety — where well-heeled production elements, including Elizabeth Bolster’s set, Tyler Kinney’s costumes, Jamie Burnett’s lighting and Michael V. Skinner’s original music and sound, meet Mack Sennett’s low-brow comedic style. While it moves the uninitiated to laugh, traditionalists will likely grieve.

“A Midsummer Nights Dream,” which continues Tuesday through Sunday in Edgerton Park, contains some of Shakespeare’s most cherished characters, the mischievous Puck and guileless Nick Bottom among them. It is more romantic comedy than not and, through all ranks of humankind, demonstrates just how foolish these mortals be.

Packer starts the production off with a martial prologue, pitting the Amazons against the Trojans (well, ancient Athenians, at least) in combat before Shakespeare even punches in the clock. It’s a lively, darkly wonderful opener, as fight choreographer Michael F. Toomey covers Bolster’s multilevel set and grassy stage with soldiers wielding swords, daggers and quarterstaffs. The scene unfolds logically into Theseus’ opening speech (“…Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword…”) and jumpstarts an otherwise flat-footed beginning.

With the exception of Dave Demke’s relatively temperate Theseus, all of the performers henceforth project their rasping voices to maximum throatiness and, in large measure, leave no action ungesticulated. It’s understood that outdoor performance, especially in a large area such as Edgerton Park, requires large motions, expressions and, of course, volume. That doesn’t mean that it should come at the expense of Shakespeare’s language. After all, colorful characters notwithstanding, Shakespeare’s language is what distinguishes his work from all else. One can have both — splendid dialogue and knockabout physicality.

In addition to Demke’s Theseus, Anna Paratore’s Hermia and Stephanie Jean Lane’s Helena are the most honest performances. They both appear entirely committed to every action just as it presents itself. In other words, they both act spontaneously and, it would seem, without instruction. They even make their most physically demanding stunts and pratfalls appear off-the-cuff. Better than anyone, these three actors steer clear of indulgence and adhere to the “invent nothing, deny nothing” edict.

Elm Shakespeare’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” relies on its high-octane energy and quirkiness to delight its audience. Clocking in just under two hours, it never dawdles. And even if the words don’t flow trippingly on the tongue, they arrive with full force.